Gide. I'm Gary Stevens.

And welcome to the second series of the History in the Bible podcast.

More of the history in more of the books in all the Bibles.

Episode 2.9.

The Apocalypse to End Them All, First Enoch.

This episode is a little shorter than usual, only because I couldn't figure out a better way to divide the material I have.

In the last episode of the history in the Bible,

I introduced the vast lost Testaments

that are the parabolicical literature.

I also introduce one of the most important books of those Testaments,

First Enoch, Father of All Apocalypses.

First Enoch is more than an apocalypse, a description of the

end of days. It also rewrites the book of Genesis. The book tells us why there is evil.

Evil came to earth not with the fall of Adam and Eve, but with fallen angels, the watchers, who mated with human

women and begat monsters. And that is exactly the theory, espoused by the Ethiopian Orthodox

Church, the only church to include First Enoch as a book of the Old Testament.

First Enoch has nothing to say about the laws and

commandments of the books of Moses. Unlike the Old Testament, the book speaks at length of a life

after death and the concept of a hell. It advocates a solar calendar rather than the lunar calendar of the Jews,

so important for setting the days of the religious feasts. It rejects the second temple as impure.

The book is a striking rejection of the Jewish religious establishment. From the fact that

these themes resonated with many of the later paribibs, we can be sure

...